Mary Grant, managing director of the rail division at FirstGroup, is stepping down and leaving the company.
Giles Fearnley, erstwhile chairman of Grand Central and ATOC and founder of Prism Rail, is joining FirstGroup as managing director of the UK bus division. Mary Grant will be leaving FirstGroup in March.
Grant joined the group in 2003 and led the successful bid for ScotRail. She subsequently became managing director of Scot Rail and took on the whole rail division six years later. Mary originally joined the rail industry as marketing director at Silverlink introducing a number of bold initiatives which saw Silverlink’s off peak loadings effectively double.
In a statement Tim O’Toole, CEO FirstGroup, said, ‘Under Mary’s leadership Scot Rail achieved tremendous success including growth of more than 20% in passenger numbers and record highs in customer satisfaction. Most recently, she successfully led the UK Rail division through the challenging economic environment in the UK and restructured the UK Bus division to create a stronger platform for future growth. Although we respect her decision, we are sorry to see Mary leave.’
